Tobaccos John Middleton, Inc - Kentucky Club Mixture Aromatic

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	CornCob (94)	2014-03-07		Very Mild	None Detected	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Tolerable

PG soaked mess, they say the tub is choc full of imported luxury tobaccos but all i tasted was red hot bitter burley that left slugs in my stem. Probably the worst of the Middleton line of tobaccos and certainly the black sheep of the Kentucky Club family.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JimInks (3025)	2014-09-27		Mild	Mild	Mild	Very Pleasant

The earthy, woody burley is lightly molasses sweet and nutty, and is the star component in regard to tobacco taste. The earthy, woody, plumy perique offers a minute spice hit. The Oriental/Turkish provides a slight dry woodiness, earth, light floralness with no spice. Not much of it is present. The Virginia is a little grassy, and mildly tart and tangy citrusy as a supporting player. The topping is rather fruity, but it has a trace of chemical flavor. The strength and taste levels are mild. Has very little nicotine. Won't bite or get harsh. Burns cool at a moderate pace with a very consistent flavor. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires few relights. Has a very pleasant room note, and decent after taste. A pleasant, mild aromatic that does better when smoked slowly. Two and a half stars.

-JimInks

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Der Pfeifenraucher (71)	2014-06-24		Very Mild	Very Mild	Mild	Pleasant

My two cents: When I smoke this stuff I get the feeling that this could have been really popular a couple of generations ago when guys walked to the corner store for their tobacco and smoked whatever that store could get. I got a great brownie pouch note albeit fairly mild. cut was a little finer than what I'm used to but loads, lights and burns well. you get a taste of subdued burleys and a little of the casing. Certainly no orientals or other exotic tobaccos. Nicotine is light but noticeable and room note isn't unpleasant. It's got a strong bite to it so no chain smoking this one. I'll burn a bowl of this every three to four weeks just for the pouch note but once it's gone that's it. No more KC for me. This is the age of the internet and I can get the best tobaccos in the world delivered to my door for a few dollars more than a pouch of KC so why bother? Not the worst class of tobacco so 2 stars.

Pipe Used: briar

Age When Smoked: 3 months

Purchased From: local place

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	oldmanpipe (62)	2006-11-01		Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant

I tried this tobacco for one reason: Antiquity.

Growing-up in a small town in southeastern Ohio, one of the few surgeons around, along with his brother, used to do rotations, with other physicians, in the Emergency Room of the local hospital. This surgeon, Dr. D., used to pull ER duty in carpet slippers, cardigan sweater and pipe. Hard to imagine now...but that's how it was. Dr. D. lived to a very ripe old age, and he smoked nothing but Kentucky Club Aromatic, usually in a pot-shaped GBD with a Perspex stem. Once, when I had been riding on the handlebars of a friend's bike and dislocated my elbow, a trip to the ER found Dr. D. on duty. He recognized me, felt the place that should have been a bump, but was then a hollow, and gave the arm a good yank. I screamed, but the joint was back in-place, and I doubt we got a bill for it; he had bigger fish to fry.

Kentucky Club Aromatic is just that kind of tobacco--basic, experienced, and friendly. It is a genuine mixture, composed of Burley, Virginia, Turkish, and Perique. There is a definite fruity casing that makes itself known in taste, but more-so in room aroma. It is a friendly smoke that works. Just like Dr. D.

Don't expect anything fancy and you will be surprised...and pleasantly-so. Just let it air-out if you can. Middleton has a thoroughly nasty habit of putting WAY TOO MUCH PEG on their blends. When this evaporates, Ky. Club Mixture is a pretty good smoke.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2012-06-12		Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant

Picked up a tub in trade and smoked from it over the course of a few months - about 5 oz or so. Middleton claims the cut is a combination of ribbon, shag, cube and flake which really means it's a coarse, choppy cut that resembles none of these. It looked like a cheap drugstore blend. Tub aroma is a bit on the fruity side and the tobacco came fairly dry. No idea how old this stuff was, and I doubt it matters much. $19.95 sticker on the tub, if that gives anyone an indication.

The claim is that there are several different tobaccos within this mix, but a sweetened burley is all I tasted. The flavor was decent, but the tongue sting mentioned by others was in evidence, which marred the proceedings. Ultimately, I had the best success with a mahogany calabash meerschaum pipe, which toned down the sting. I also tried rehydrating but all that did was cause the flavor to dumb down. This did produce a taste akin to cinnamon at times but sweetened burley was the main taste. Not nearly as hearty of a burley as KC Mild, which I smoke occasionally. Perhaps the aromatic component is causing the tongue sting. At any rate, this phenomenon hurt what otherwise would be at best a mediocre batch of leaf. I give this two stars but it's probably somewhere between 1 and 2. Hard to recommend but curious puffers may want to give it a go.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	hockey01 (29)	2011-01-24		Mild	Mild	Very Mild	Tolerable

When I was a kid, my next door neighbor's father smoked this blend in his pipe all day long, even while mowing his lawn in the dog days of summer. It smelled good to me then but now, maybe because one's sense of smell becomes jaded over the years, I don't get that same olfactory enjoyment from this blend as I remember . I can also recall watching him fill his pipe and it seems to me that the mixture then was cube cut rather than the flake it is today, although many tobacco blends and manufacturing techniques have changed since the 1950s and this one is probably no exception.

Kentucky Club Aromatic is not "cool burning" as the packaging suggests. As previous reviewers have already warned, you'll feel like a fire-breathing dragon about halfway through your first pipeful. I don't know how one could make this an all-day smoke. In the cannister, the blend has a sort of very faint chocolatey aroma but it doesn't translate into the room note or the taste.

Bottom line is: with so many delicious blends to choose from, ones that you can smoke all day with no tongue bite whatsoever, I can't recommend that you allow yourself to suffer with this blend at all.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Corncob3 (77)	2014-07-19		Medium to Strong	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant

Scratching my head on this one during the first bowl. With the second I caught on. It's all about the burley and perique, while the Turkish adds a note of spice. The taste was zesty, nutty and nice. As for the so called "bite" people keep refering to , I think they're confusing it with the tang-like quality found in perique. This does seem to dominate in the smoke but in a good way. The taste and aroma are akin to chocolate covered raspberries but in an old-fashioned pipe smoking way. Maybe that's what has turned people off from this blend. Pipe tobacco wasn't so overcased in those days so the taste is slightly forgein to us now. I think the issue is more with KCA in the pouch rather than the 12oz tub. A good pipe scrubbing might be in order if you find this one biting your ankles so to speak. That makes a world of difference. Works well in corncob or briar. Just remember John Middleton blends are meant to air out in small batches for an hour or longer before smoking. Now I have a new friend with a classic logo to boot.

Update: 8/22/14 Thank you Russ at P&C for giving great tips on maintaining our pipe collection. In a recent catalogue he said when rotating your pipes let them dry out for a few days or so, depending on the amount of smokes in a day. For example: 3 smokes out of the same pipe let that pipe dry out for 3 days. Doing so not only reduces moisture dramatically, it also combats the dreaded furnace effect. I recently tried this with my cobs (which are notorious for gaining moisture and overheating in hot humid weather or becoming brittle in very cold weather). Thanks to this tip I had a far smoother, drier and cooler smoking experience. The same technique should be used with any style pipe. It's a little tricky at first remembering which pipe you are drying out. Once you get the process going it will become like second nature. Labeling the days of the week on your pipestand is the best way to do it. So after all the negative reviews for KCA, I took Russ's advice and smoked some KCA in a cob.....very smooooth and no bite. I thought I was smoking raspberry wine with a hint of dark chocolate-not overly sweet. I did notice a slight peppery note, but that made the experience that much more interesting. It did get slightly more peppery at the bottom of the bowl, but it was also a humid, wet and windy night. This always seems to affect my pipes. My advice, if you use a cob smoke a full bowl and always use a match. Half a bowl and a cheap lighter later it's heat, moisture and clump city regardless of the blend. I've also been smoking Wessex Aromatic Mixture which is less sweet with a very noticeable but very nice ginger note. I'm torn between two lovers, because both blends are so damn good. Take Russ' advice and another try at KCA and I garauntee a very rewarding smoking experience. Now to smoke KCA out of a briar,,,

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Dr. G (15)	2014-02-06		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

I really wanted to love this as it is an old favorite of a good friend who swears its what Jesus would smoke if He was a piper. Pro - good nicotine hit. Con - extreme heat sans flavour. Really nothing more than that. The blow torch effect makes me think it would more likely be the preferred weed of the red guy with the pointy tail. If a ripping nickel buzz is your thing, give it a whirl and keep a fire extinguisher handy.

Pipe Used: falcon classic with dublin bowl

Age When Smoked: new

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DrT999 (317)	2013-02-27		Extremely Mild	Extremely Mild	Very Mild	Pleasant

Mostly a fairly mild and inoffensive blend, although it does bite like a toy dog on your trouser-leg -- annoying but not actually painful. It does burn amazingly fast, and if there really is anything other than mildly-flavored white burley in this, I can't detect it.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	WillardFan (90)	2012-07-10		Mild	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I've had a tub of this sitting around for about 5 years now. It has gotten better, but not a lot better. The initial light-up is quite tasty, but then it gets bitey, even if smoked gently. I've tried this in small, medium, and large bowled pipes. Doesn't make much difference. Still rears up to bite ya. Packed loosely, it becomes tolerable. Maybe another 5 years on the mantle will do the trick. Carter Hall is still better than this stuff. Anybody want to swap tubs?

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipestud (1829)	2011-06-16		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

Smoking a bowl of this old classic took me back to the days when men who smoked such a blend were real men and women who smoked such a blend were real men too! The Virginia and Burley, combined with Perique made for a, well, manly smoke.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	BurleyTwirp (11)	2016-06-27		Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

A pipe blend of days gone by. There aren't many (if any) produced like it these days. The flavor/aroma is very unique; I get a sense of Christmas spices. There is also a pleasantly sweet spiciness, similar to that of ginger. A fairly robust mixture. There is a lot of flavor, and the room note is very pleasant. This is an ideal aromatic blend because there is no goopiness or taste of artificial additives. I really like this blend.

Pipe Used: Willard Apple pipe

Age When Smoked: 20+ years. Purchased sealed pouches off of eBay.

Purchased From: eBay

Similar Blends: The other mixtures produced by Kentucky club throughout the last several decades..

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Arkie (129)	2012-09-25		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Very Mild	Tolerable

I like some blends that have a delicate flavor but they must taste like something other than hot air. Don't bother trying this blend.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Thbg (29)	2011-09-08		Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

This bit my tounge very badly and I tossed out the pouch after a few pipes and have not looked back. I would not recommend.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2010-06-28		Very Mild	Very Mild	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

Call the ambulance before you light that pipe, because your tounge is going to need urgent care after you puff a few times. This is one of the most terrible tobaccos I've ever put in a pipe.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DeadMensPipes (38)	2009-07-03		Medium	Medium	Medium	Tolerable

This stuff is horrible. (Since there is not a category in the ratings choices for "disgusting" I chose "medium" for strength, flavoring, and taste.)

After reading the more positive reviews here, I picked up a pouch for $4.95 at a local tobacco shop - way overpriced in my opinion. Yes, the packaging has that nostalgic look that creates an expectation of tasting something unchanged, traditional. The first disappoinment occurred upon opening the plaid printed foil pouch: an icky semisweet scent, and a muddy dark appearing tobacco. I hesitated to even put it in the pipe for fear it would foul the pipe - but I reasoned that often, the flavor when a tobacco is smoked is very different from the way it smells in the tin or pouch, so I decided to give it an honest try.

It loaded easily, and packed okay. Upon lighting, I knew there might be trouble. It did not just bite, it burned my entire mouth - reminiscent of a cup of hot chocolate, tea or coffee that is way too hot. The roof of my mouth definitely burned. (God forbid anyone inhaling this stuff - their lungs would be seared.) I am not a "heavy puffer." Even short, airfilled "sips" of this trash tobacco do not help. Within a few puffs of lighting, the bowl started gurgling, and after about a quarter of the bowl, it became impossible to puff without drawing a stream of fowl brown liquid through the mouthpiece. The bowl actually became too hot to comfortably touch. I put it down to cool, and emptied out the garbage.

The next morning, I still had a foul chemically taste in my mouth, and the roof of my mouth felt like the next day after swallowing a scalding cup of tea or coffee. Definitely not recommended.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2008-07-17		Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant

Update: I just bought another pouch at my local supermarket. This pouch is excellent. Flavor much better than previous packages. Not harsh, cool burning. Did the quality improve? Or did I just get a good pack? I won't upgrade a star unless subsequent packages are as good as this one.

Original review: I just finished a pouch of KC mixture, not having purchased this since my high school days. I can't really remember what it was like back then, but I felt cool, smoking what I thought was an expensive mixture.

I find the mixture today a nice smoke, readily available in my area However, there's nothing outstanding or notable about this tobacco. This is just an honest, decent, inexpensive pipe tobacco. Taste is mild, cannot say that it is an aromatic. Probably why I somewhat like it. Tongue bite stays at a minimum.

All in all, a decent change of pace smoke. I will buy it on occasion.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Frosty (29)	2008-04-09		Mild	None Detected	Mild	Unnoticeable

I picked up a fresh pouch, as the tobacco was nice and moist. The aroma from the super-cool retro plaid pouch was very nice indeed- chocolate, and maybe a hint of cinnamon. I loaded a bowl in a well seasoned Dr. G in the Pot shape. First light, Wow, this stuff actually "stung" my mouth rather than "bit" as a Virginia would. I smoked very slowly, but the pain was too much. I smoke many Virginia blends and slices, but the "stinging" sensation is both curious and unbearable to me. At least I didn't plunge in and buy the big 14 oz tub to try it. Darn, I love the retro plaid pouch so much I was sure I would like this. I was home alone in the garage while smoking this so I have no idea what the room note is like. The package assured me that the ladies love it though! Try it if you choose, but proceed with caution. Darn...........

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SmokeKing David (134)	2007-08-30		Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

This blend smoked very hot...delivering mucho tongue bite and very little enjoyment. Not recommended.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Tantric (321)	2006-10-05		Mild	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

I guess this belongs to those aromas one associated with pipe smoking, well, 40 years ago? A nice room note, fruity and chocolaty, the type of smell one would expect from grandpa sitting in his chair, in front of a fire in a log cabin, with either a Basset or a Blood Hound at his feet, and a cup of hot coffee or cocoa in a side table.

I agree with the reviewer that purports this as basically a Burley blend. That it is, and in good measure. It's not that this is a bad blend. I guess that in more parochial settings blends like this one, or Prince Albert, Country Doctor or Vermont Maple, suffice. However, once you've been stung by Latakias, Turkish, straight matured Virginias or Virginia and Perique mixtures, well, Kentucky Club or Kentucky Club Aromatic just don't hit the spot.

Still, a nice baccy, in the same sense that Neil Sedaka is, well, Ok.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2006-03-05		Very Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

I really like the regular Kentucky Club but the aromatic doesn't do it for me. It did get much better as the packet aired out but still this is no big woof. For some reason the inexpensive tobaccos work better for me as very simple smokes. The odd sweet aroma reminded me of a coolant leek when smoking it in my car. I wasn't real fond of the very uneven cut either. On the plus side, did I mention how inexpensive this stuff is at less then $2.00 a box? If I am going to smoke something I don't love, cheaper is better. With Blue Note for example, I keep seeing images of dollars drifting away in the smoke. It also burned well once the packet had breathed for awhile, which is another plus. So in conclusion, this is smokeable, but not as good as the regular Kentucky Club.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Philo Beddoe (221)	2006-03-02		Very Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant

This is a review of Aromatic Kentucky Club Mixture, in the red plaid box/pouch. That was just to clarify, as there seems to be some confusion as to the Kentucky Club line.

As I opened the foil pouch I smelled coffee, dark chocolate and something like ginger. The tobacco was very dry and quite loose. It lit very easy and smoked well. The tobacco tasted like a cigar, not an expensive $10.00 Dominican, but closer to a Dutch Masters. As I progressed down the bowl the flavor was consistently cigar, but turned sour about 3/4 way through, like most burley blends. I finished the bowl, but as I do not like cheap cigars, I will not be having another.

This was not a bad tobacco, just one I don't particularly care for. If you like the taste and smell of cheap cigars give this a try.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Spike (296)	2005-11-30		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

If you like the House of Windsor blends like Revelation, Country Dr., etc. this tobac looks similar. Not the same except the general texture and relative dryness. This is a good, flavored American-style (old school) Aromatic. Lots of granular Burley with a little bit of all the other types mentioned in the description above. A bit forward in flavor when fresh, I think this blend will benefit from a bit of airing out. It smokes quite nicely as well, no stickyness or goop. The big question is....Do you want an entire tin to try it out? Look for a pouch, if you like it the cannister will probably be even better. These plastic cannisters do seal quite well for a container with only a slip-fit lid. I give it three and one-quarter stars in its' class. I would much rather smoke this than the most popular American Aromatics!

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Danno (106)	2005-11-10		Extremely Mild	Mild	Mild	Very Pleasant

A friend passed me a pouch of this a few weeks back, more as a gag than anything I think. Guess what, I smoked the whole pouch and it was decent. This is burley, burley, burley, no matter what the foil pouch proclaims, but it is good burley, light and somewhat sweet. Flavor is akin to Country Doctor, but less potent. A passable fishing tobacco, if there is no Sail to be had.

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